In this video I directly compare the Undertone Audio Unfairchild 670m II analogue compressor with the digital plugin. The plugin is a highly renowned compressor by many people. But how does it compare to the analogue hardware? You be the judge.
The Fairchild circuit could be one of the most coveted and time tested compressors of all time. It has proven its extraordinary universal musicality for over 5 decades on countless genres of music. The beauty of its design is in its simplicity. The audio path, primarily consisting of only 2 transformers and 4 paralleled vari-mu tubes, can provide a gentle smoothing of levels or an explosive, energising compression that will make any recording leap out of the speakers. The UTA UnFairchild is a painstaking recreation of the classic sound of this circuit.
There are a few limitations of the original Fairchild that we set out to address. First, we have made careful adjustments to the circuitry that greatly improve the lifespan and reliability of the tubes. Additionally, we’ve added a whole host of exciting new features that have never before been available on a Fairchild. The UnFairchild sports 6 original preset Time Constants and 4 variable Time Constants (attack and release), MS function, side chain processing, a true bypass, fine adjustment of left/right balance, user adjustable “DC Threshold”, and “Feed-Back” vs. “Feed-Forward” functionality. With the UnFairchild, we’ve made this extraordinary circuit flexible enough to handle pretty much every compression task on any style of music.
UNFa-1 FB/FF Control
We added the FB/FF control so you can get the full benefits of applying Feed Forward (“FF”) compression to the UnFairchild circuit. FF compression is a wonderfully aggressive sound but can be a bit unwieldy at times. Being able to blend the Feed-Forward (“FF”) signal with the Feedback (“FB”) signal allows you to add just the right amount to get that amazing aggressive sound without having the compression fall of a cliff of over compressing.
HP Freq Control
Many of you are likely already aware of the practice of High Passing the side chain signal on a compressor. For those of us that like to have a lot of low end in our mixes, it is helpful to make the compressor LESS sensitive to those frequencies so it is not mostly reacting to only the low fre- quencies and pulling down the volume of the overall mix. The HP FREQ control allows you to control this issue.
Mix Control
Many of you are likely already aware of “parallel” compression. With parallel compression, you are blending the compressed signal with the original uncompressed signal instead of only hearing the compressed signal. It allows you to use more extreme compression settings without having the signal sound too compressed. Why is this useful? Why wouldn’t you just use a less extreme compression setting if you want it to sound less compressed? Blending more extreme compression can sound very different than simply setting the compressor less extreme.
Output Control
As mentioned in the “Front Panel Controls” section, we have found that the UnFairchild can sound really good when pushing A LOT of level through it. By reducing the output level, you can get the benefits of pushing a lot of level without clipping the input of whatever device comes after it.
